Intro from an old Assembly Plant guy

[legendman]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

This is after it is "flanged"



...and screwed and bonded in place. Sort of a "Frankentruck" appearance!

Great thread.

I have a question on the "flang", is it a tool that does the stepping of metal ?

Not sure if Keith still checks in here, maybe someone else will know.

[Keith Seymore]

I'm here; thank you.

It's a small tool based on a pair of vise grips. The jaws have features built in to create a small die so that when the vice grips snap closed they form an offset.

I probably got them out of the Eastwood catalog.

K

[old Rusty C10]

this place has a couple of different options
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5QZD82ftHA

[wazzabie]

Thank you for sharing your story. About how long did it take for the vehicle to go down the assembly line? Where trucks left over night to allow the paint to dry?

[LT7A]

I went back in the thread and read up a little bit. Any chance you can tell us about that secret project now?

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by wazzabie

Thank you for sharing your story. About how long did it take for the vehicle to go down the assembly line? Where trucks left over night to allow the paint to dry?

It was a couple days if you include the time to weld up the body, fab up the pickup box and get through paint.

After vehicles came out of paint and into trim it was about 8 hours from there to the end of the line, depending on line rate, work stoppages due to breakdowns or material shortages or whatever.

I caught my truck coming down out of paint and into trim at 4:30 pm. I'm pretty sure I was leaving the plant at the end of that shift at 1 pm, after already having driven it over to the shipping building.

Trucks went directly from paint into paint drying ovens. They were set anywhere between high 200 deg F to 350 deg F and the vehicle spent about 1/2 hour in there. They were ready to work on immediately, after cooling to the touch.

There were also paint repair ovens which were not as hot, particularly if running a completed vehicle through paint repair.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by LT7A

I went back in the thread and read up a little bit. Any chance you can tell us about that secret project now?

Prob not. It's going to be about 30 years before I can share any technical details and I'm not allowed to post anything electronically.

I'll just leave this cool random photo here without any editorial comment.

K

[S10Fan]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Prob not. It's going to be about 30 years before I can share any technical details and I'm not allowed to post anything electronically.

I'll just leave this cool random photo here without any editorial comment.

K

The Beast!

[Nick_R_23]

Interesting. Always wondered who gets to design the next generation.

[legendman]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I'm here; thank you.

It's a small tool based on a pair of vise grips. The jaws have features built in to create a small die so that when the vice grips snap closed they form an offset.

I probably got them out of the Eastwood catalog.

K

Thanks!!

BTW I got a copy of Rivethead

[wazzabie]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

It was a couple days if you include the time to weld up the body, fab up the pickup box and get through paint.

After vehicles came out of paint and into trim it was about 8 hours from there to the end of the line, depending on line rate, work stoppages due to breakdowns or material shortages or whatever.

I caught my truck coming down out of paint and into trim at 4:30 pm. I'm pretty sure I was leaving the plant at the end of that shift at 1 pm, after already having driven it over to the shipping building.

Trucks went directly from paint into paint drying ovens. They were set anywhere between high 200 deg F to 350 deg F and the vehicle spent about 1/2 hour in there. They were ready to work on immediately, after cooling to the touch.

There were also paint repair ovens which were not as hot, particularly if running a completed vehicle through paint repair.

K

That is really cool you got to see your truck get built. That didn't take much time at all for the paint to dry.

I think starting in 78 the bodies were dipped in a zinc solution. They still would rust out. I have a photo of the 78 rusting two years after it was built.

Maybe you would know the answer to these questions.

1. My 78 K5 hood bent when I was closing it I think because I never had oiled the hinges before. The hinge got bound up on one side. What is the best way to prevent the bent hood? Do I need to get new hinges?

2. In 78 GM added bracing rods from the bell housing to engine and tcase to engine on the K5 Blazer. In 72 the K5 tcase bracing was to the frame. Why would the 78 K5 not have bracing to the frame like the 72 K5?

3. What does the white chalking indicate on the valve covers? I've seen the number 21 in chalk on several covers including on my k5. Also for the 73-87 was the chalk markings standard on all GM assembly plants or would each assembly plant have its own distinct chalk markings?

4. At the assembly plant about how many people were on the line do you think that assembled the 73-78 chevy? Did these lines run 24x7?

5. Did the couple of days estimate also include engine building? I assume the engine was built at the same time as the body was being built.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by wazzabie

That is really cool you got to see your truck get built.

I got to do that a couple times; I followed my ’80 pickup down the line as well.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

I think starting in 78 the bodies were dipped in a zinc solution. They still would rust out. I have a photo of the 78 rusting two years after it was built.

Bodies were dipped in an ELPO tank starting around that timeframe. This allowed the primer to get in all the nooks and crannies better than spraying.

http://73-87.com/7387info/Assembly%20Line.htm

When H2s were built in Mishawaka Indiana they were also dipped. The bodies were tumbled end-over-end to ensure there were no air bubbles and that there was complete coverage inside.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

Maybe you would know the answer to these questions.

1. My 78 K5 hood bent when I was closing it I think because I never had oiled the hinges before. The hinge got bound up on one side. What is the best way to prevent the bent hood? Do I need to get new hinges?

I’d try cleaning and lubing your existing hinges first, to free them up. If that doesn’t work then I would go for new hinges. There is also a reinforcement that can be added to your hood to brace it in that area, available commercially through most of the repop part supply houses.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

2. In 78 GM added bracing rods from the bell housing to engine and tcase to engine on the K5 Blazer. In 72 the K5 tcase bracing was to the frame. Why would the 78 K5 not have bracing to the frame like the 72 K5?

Could be changes due to continuous improvement (for driveline bending/Noise and Vibration performance) or maybe even better assembly. If the braces go from the engine to the trans/tcase then they can be installed on the motor line, rather that waiting for the chassis line to make the installation. That makes them easier to install, and drives the workload upstream, which is always desirable.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

3. What does the white chalking indicate on the valve covers? I've seen the number 21 in chalk on several covers including on my k5. Also for the 73-87 was the chalk markings standard on all GM assembly plants or would each assembly plant have its own distinct chalk markings?

Normally they were build sequence numbers written in an attempt to keep everything in order, or often were added as a heads up to downstream workers about what option content to expect (paint color, engine, trans, brake system, etc).

The chalk marks were not a formal engineering requirement and therefore were “ad lib”, and could vary by plant, by shift, by operator, and even the color could vary based on whatever was laying around.

There has been a bunch of good discussion on this forum. Some of my favorites are attached below:

Factory Markings: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Need Help Deciphering Factory Grease Marks: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Show Us your Crayon Marks: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Factory Grease Pencil Marks: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ighlight=Linda

Z Code Fremont Asssembly http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

Found my Build Sheet: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...light=graffiti

Numbers at top of firewall: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=545345

Help CC to the Nuthouse: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...ghlight=grease

Originally Posted by wazzabie

4. At the assembly plant about how many people were on the line do you think that assembled the 73-78 chevy? Did these lines run 24x7?

Oh, man! I hadn’t thought about a number, but it would be a lot!

There were seven final assembly locations building squarebodies, and you had not only the actual production assemblers on the line but absentee replacements, temporary relief men, inspection, repair, etc. I had 29 production operations in my area and had about 36 hourly employees by the time you had one for each job, three or four utility men and one quality man (aka “right hand man”). Don’t forget all the support on top of that: material control, fork lift drivers, repairmen on the short moving repair lines, repairmen out back in the stationary stalls of heavy repair, drivers for moving the vehicles off the end of the line, drivers for running repair parts out back, drivers for shuttling vehicles around between repair areas, drivers for running the vehicles over to the shipping building, etc.

I wouldn’t know how to put a number on that.

Some passenger car plants ran 3 shifts of production but I don’t think trucks ever did. They ran either one or two shifts of 8 hour production 5 days a week normally, with occasional scheduled runs of 6 days and/or some 10 hour days. There was usually a bit of unscheduled overtime per day (a tenth of an hour or two) just to make sure all the buffers and accumulators were full for the start of the next production shift.

UAW employees were entitled to a break in the morning (6 minutes for every hour worked), a 1/2 hour lunch, and a break in the afternoon. There were a couple ways to accomplish this: one technique was a "rolling relief", in which case those absentee utility men and relief men I mentioned would "tag" one employee at a time to provide them a break, while the line continued to run. When that person returned from break they would work their way down the line, covering for each assembler one by one. The second technique was called "mass relief", in which the line would stop for 24 minutes (or whatever the allotted time was) in the morning, and again in the afternoon. In that case all 6000 or 10,000 people in the plant would all make a beeline for the restrooms or cafeteria, all at the exact same time. The line would stop for that 30 minute lunch break as well.

Originally Posted by wazzabie

5. Did the couple of days estimate also include engine building? I assume the engine was built at the same time as the body was being built.

No – engines were built in the days, weeks and months ahead of time, at specific engine build locations. Engines were built in Flint, Michigan, Tonawanda NY and St Catherines, ONT CAN, for example, then racked up and shipped via rail or truck to the various final assembly locations. Same with other component parts – transmissions, t cases, drive shafts, axles, steering gears, power steering pumps, alternators, starters, HVAC modules, etc. All built up ahead of time.

The intent was that these would be a first in/first out type usage, but sometimes material would get moved around and lost in the assembly plant, only to be discovered at a later date.

Passenger car assembly in Pontiac Michigan was unusual in this regard. They poured the iron, machined the parts, and built up the engines right there on the same plot of land as the final assembly took place. The timeframe from when they poured my engine block and cylinder heads, built it into a running engine, installed it in my ’65 GTO and shipped the car was 9 days. But even in this case it was not a "just in time" sequenced assembly. Engines were still built up in volume and shipped over to the final assembly plant in batches.

K

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Prob not. It's going to be about 30 years before I can share any technical details and I'm not allowed to post anything electronically.

I'll just leave this cool random photo here without any editorial comment.

K

How random! Cool photo.

[rodstored-72]

keith, thank you for being a member on here & sharing your knowledge... my ex wife's uncle worked at the arlington tx plant. I "think?? he worked on the police cruisers. he has some good stories as well.

[85/Silverado]

Those were the days, My Mother worked at the Pontiac Plant in Pontiac and Dad worked at Dodge Truck in Warren. We had some great arguements at the dinner table in the 60,s and 70's....lol

[D13]

I second Keith's comments about engines... we once built armored cars for export to the middle east. Take an 90's RWD Cadillac, put 1/2 ton truck springs and brakes under it, then install a leaded fuel 307 Olds built to 442 specs for an engine, with a TH400 instead of a 2004R, and 3.73 gears. Looked and ran like an old gasser. Then we sent that to Hess and Eisenhart for armoring.

But they built less than 200 leaded fuel 442 307's that year, and they built all of them in a 2 day span judging by the build numbers on our engines. Which mean some of ours set for 6 months before being installed.

About your picture Keith.... pretty good guesser, aren't I?

[D13]

Went to the muscle car races at US131 to check out the action and watch Keith run his True Street car. Keith and his son treated us well, including giving my overstimulated wife and I a ride back to our parking spot on a miserably hot and muggy day. A pair of true gentlemen and a pleasure to visit with. Love that his big block Chevelle was spec'd out by his dad for his mom... my dad ordered the 81 in Carmine Red specifically because my mom was tired of all the blue cars and trucks.

[Keith Seymore]

My wife is going through and digitizing our old photo albums; found a couple photos of my son and I washing our respective red trucks.

This has to be around 1990 or '91.

K

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

My wife is going through and digitizing our old photo albums; found a couple photos of my son and I washing our respective red trucks.

This has to be around 1990 or '91.

K

This is photo to keep for sure ,, I can see your son hanging this photo on his garage /shop wall ..

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

My wife is going through and digitizing our old photo albums; found a couple photos of my son and I washing our respective red trucks.

This has to be around 1990 or '91.

K

Funny how those routine events are anything but routine when you look back on them.

[Palf70Step]

[57NAPCO]

Once again a big Thank You Keith

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

My wife is going through and digitizing our old photo albums

K

Found another picture of the blue truck -

This would be around 1986 or 1987.

K

[D13]

Always sweet to see those old memories. I have the hood chrome of my 67 Biscayne, still dented from my first accident, in the barn. Some other bits and pieces but few photos. Of course I think the remains of Dad's truck in my 'graveyard' probably count.

[Keith Seymore]

Found a coupe more old photos of the red truck from when we were in Arizona.

These would have been 1991-1994 timeframe.

K